It turns out the rumor was true: Nintendo has just announced the Wii Mini, a complete redesign of the Wii console. The new console was first leaked by Best Buy, and later Nintendo caved in and confirmed it. The new Wii carries a new price: $99.

After Nintendo sold 400,000 Wii U consoles and 300,000 Wiis last week, it was clear that the old Wii was still a strong seller, especially with the casual crowd who have yet to try out the original console. While the Wii U is on everyone’s mind these days, Nintendo reminded everyone that the Wii is still the best selling current-gen console, and they intend for it to stay that way with the Wii Mini.

However, there are some interesting aspects with the Wii redesign. For one, so far it’s announced only for Canada, where it will launch on December 7. Secondly, it lacks many features found in the original Wii. One is that it cannot play GameCube games, which isn’t a big surprise, but what is a big surprise is that the Wii Mini doesn’t have any online connectivity.

As revealed in a press release, Nintendo clearly intends the Wii Mini for casual gamers and first time Wii owners, not those looking to replace their existing Wii with the Mini. The new design is radically different from the old, it even appears to look like an external hard drive or DVD drive. Check out some images of the new console below:

Nintendo has opened a new web page for the brand new console. You can find it here. Of course, those who have the new Wii U won’t really need the Wii Mini — the Wii U is fully backwards compatible with all Wii games (but not GameCube games).

Cool. I shall now ask mother to buy bro and sis this. (I already have a wii u 🙂 )

Just nin10do

good but i have a wii why should i buy it?,!!! but its beautiful

Dat Guy

Darn, this console looks so cool and I would want to replace it with my old wii, but since it has no online connectivity and can’t play gamecube games I won’t replace it 🙁

Leeroy

no online?

Clem

Yeah, what’s that all about? Seems a little odd to nix the Shop Channel (and by extension Wii Ware and Virtual Console), among countless other things…

Captain Falcon

Reminds me of when Sony released the PSP E1000 (no wireless connectivity)

MujuraNoKamen

I don’t get why they dropped so many features, the E-Shop, Virtual console and Gamecube compatibility were great features on the original model so why get rid of them. I’m not against them releasing hardware revisions late in a consoles life (or at the end in this instance what with the Wii U just coming out) especially since Wii is still a highly profitable product for Nintendo but I can’t help but feel it’s a little unnecessary, I mean 6 years after Wii’s release no gamer is sat on the fence about buying one who is going to be persuaded to buy one because a version that’s lacking half the features of the original model. If some people aren’t taken by Wii U and instead want to try an original Wii they’d buy an original Wii, since it’s still fairly cheap and has more features or if someone’s Wii breaks and they want to replace it, they’d A: buy a normal Wii with all the features or B buy a Wii U since it does everything the Wii can and more. I also think this might add to confusion about Wii U (sadly there are still people dumb enough to think it is a version of the Wii) and this may draw attention away from Wii U which is exactly what no one wants to happen.

Lazara the Last

Awesome. Although, 100 million people already have a Wii, so I don’t see a big market for it. Maybe that’s why only Canada get’s it.

Tim van Broekhoven

I hope the netherlands get it too, I have to get is as a huge nintendo fan 😛

Super Buu

I kinda really like the design of this console. It is kind of old school. Great to know that,for once, we, Canadians, get something the others don’t! Proud to be Canadian!

I guess they know what they are doing. Nintendo knows how to squeeze every last drop out of a console. The redesign this holiday season might be enough to push the Wii to number 4 on the all time best-selling console list.

Kyle Berger

I think they should have kept online. btw I am 007 1/2.

Clem

As a friend pointed out to me, a wii remote plus and a nunchuck controller will cost you $70 here in Canada, so really this deal means that you’re getting that plus a $30 Wii console!!! I think most of us can agree that $30 is more than a fair price.

Excellent for South America where economics is a catastrophic. I hope Nintendo release it also on Center America and the Caribbean.

SH*TBLOCK

It has a great design, but my question is why? It is limited in what you can do, then add in the fact that the original Wii price is down to like what $130.00 dollars now. That is a lot of marketing hours and development to make this when the WiiU just came out, plus the regular Wii’s are still selling great. I think this is a waste of time and resources. They should’ve took all that man power and put it into making the U even better.

I want the red wiimote+ and the red nunchuk, own wait I saw the red wiimote+ and red nunchuck at intertoys last weekend when I bought NSMBwii. But seperate it costs €44,- and this mini Wii costs only €99,-
Maybe I’ll get one aswell IF it get’s released in the Netherlands 😀

Jonas

I like the marketing strategy of nintendo. Because tabled or mobile phone gaming is becoming more popular they are making a perfect example of competing in that part of gaming.
They take part in the change of gaming, while still satisfying the other type of gamers, that are more into hardcore games.
Thats how they will win, not mattering how the WiiU will be against the other new consoles. They still try to sell the wii which this article perfectly describes.
And not to forget: they succeed with it.

Lack of internet kills the whole idea. Sure, there weren’t a lot of good online games, but this also kills Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and more.

Michael Wakeman

Kinda a bummer that I got tuck with white and Nintendo makes this new sexy cherry red console.

Michael Wakeman

Wait by online connectivity does that mean they will not get to enjoy the wii shop????

AlienFanatic

Yes. Without Wi-Fi there is no way to access the shop, period. Just a bizarre choice. I understand the need to save money, but it can’t cost Nintendo more than a couple bucks for a cheap b/g/n radio in the thing.

Pangolin_user

I Think, its a good idea, for third world countries where pirated copies of game easily found, modded wii is common, and its lack of internet connection. because when in online and update firmware automatically the mod will be broken, so theres no hulu neflix n nintendo e shop on that wii.
Nitendo make a profit of every wii they made, if they want to break record of ps2 (which still being sell in here) they need to make the wii cheaper and the internet connectivity is nnot needed.

If,IF it was to come to america it will have Wifi and sd card. it wont come to america. can we wall quit complaining on something ment for Canada. Seriously I feel bad for Canada.

SoulSilverZero

I think they may be still selling the bigger Wii even after this one…

Hero_of_Skyloft

The larger Wii will be able to play games from all consoles!

AlienFanatic

I can’t for the life of me figure out why they removed Wi-Fi. That’s such a miniscule cost that enables so many useful features (Netflix, VC, game previews, etc.). Really, what a foolish, short-sighted, limited product.

EDIT: OOF! And I just noticed the thing comes with standard composite AV cables, not component, for the absolute worst-quality picture you can get. Yes, it has the widest compatibility but man the picture quality royally suffers.

I think it looks great! although all those bells and whistles from the original wii gone is enough to deter me from actually buying it
if they redesigned the normal wii or the wii u to look like this I would buy it in a heartbeat.

also I don’t know why they felt the need to make the already small wii even smaller, what’s the point?

ReckoningReckoner

I’m not going to lie, but this is a waste of money. As a Canadian, I know you can easily spend 30 bucks more to buy a normal Wii that has internet and gamecube capabilities as well as a free game. It’s pretty much a brick. A sexy one, might I say.

Plus, imagine the heart break of some kids who ask for the “new wii” and get this.

Lord Fuse

I really like the design, but it’s killed by the lack of online. If this was coming out in emerging markets, then I would see why there was none. I wonder if it will support VC/WiiWare games through SD cards?

Linskarmo

Interesting design. The lack of online connectivity could be a bit of a bummer, but it looks great for people that want a Wii but don’t want the online.